The Red Bud Musketeers entered their tilt with the Sparta Bulldogs with four consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with five. Red Bud walked away with a 40-33 victory over Sparta on Monday. Given Red Bud's advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 239th, while Sparta is ranked 561st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Lyla Hess went supernova for Red Bud, scoring 22 points. Hess continues to roll, besting her previous point total in each of the last three games she's played. Another player making a difference was Emma Carter, who scored two points along with ten rebounds and two blocks.
Sparta's defeat came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Kenzie Pierce, who scored 13 points along with four steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Ruthie Pillers, who scored 11 points along with seven rebounds.
Red Bud is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a nice bump to their 19-7 record this season. As for Sparta, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 5-15.
Red Bud will head out on the road to face off against Chester at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Hopefully Chester focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 23 on Monday. As for Sparta, they won't have much time to rest: their next matchup is against Trico at 6:00 p.m. on January 30th.
